Tuesday, August 14, 2007

"I See," said the Blind Man

I am impaired. Seriously, I don't know if it is safe for me to drive. I am slap happy both mentally and giddily (def giddily: adv., performing any function under the influence of the state of giddiness, spiritedly). This thought process was probably a result of being overly tired and getting mentally slap-happy. Mental slap-happiness is a little different than the "over all" slap-happiness that we enjoy. Where as the usual bout of slap-happiness makes us giddy and causes us to giggle over the most inane things, mental slap-happiness turns on our Aristotilian nature in looking at things. I think pot does both of these. You see the people who indulge in MJ laugh about anything, but also the thoughtful, philosophical side in some folks come out. I think about the scene in "Animal House" where the fellas were sitting in the dark, sharing weed with their professor. The discussion was about the Universe and whether it is large or whether a whole Universe sits on one of our finger nails. But I digress . . .

My mental slap-happiness was not pot induced but fatigue induced lest someone's clean cut image of me should burst. When I get this way, I think of things that normally I am too uptight to think about. This is no exception. One thing I have been thinking about in this impaired state is what it would be like to be blind.

Do blind people see anything? It sounds like a stupid question, but one has to look at the question a bit deeper. I always hear about someone who is blind living in darkness. Darkness is a sight, though, isn't it? You see darkness. Darkness IS something.

Sometimes when my eyes are closed I can see dim colors - even in a dark room. It seems that are brains are wired to observe SOMETHING. Darkness, dim colors, something is fed to the brain like in a dream. One really doesn't "see" his/her dreams, but they experience them in some way. The brain replicates "sight" for the dreams; the eyes do not obtain ANY of the dream's images.

What are blind people's dreams like? Do they 'see'? I bet it makes a difference if one becomes blind after a period of sight or if they are blind from birth. Does the blind manufacture the "touch" since in the dreams of the blind in lieu of sight? I would guess the recently blind "see" while the blind-from-birth people "hear" or "feel" their dreams.

I have no answers here, just conjecture. I can probably ask someone who has been blinded for some information, if I knew someone, but I will never know about the experiences of people blind from birth. There are no common references in which to communicate.

I think it depends on if the blind person HAS seen before or not. My being hard of hearing and using hearing aids, when I dont have them in, I hear things and not able to decipher them. Same with when I have them in, I hear things differently and have no idea what I am hearing. (like the tones are different, so they are the same thing but I cant tell)

I once smoked pot because my friend convinced me under pressure. When I got high, and the munchies we decided to go to a restaurant. It was in the wee hours of the morning and I don't even remember what restaurant it was. But I do remember eating veal Parmesean. I remember it made my friend mad because of the way the cows are raised. Anyways I said something about taking a knife and cutting the cows throat or something (I don't remember).

My friends later told me they were scared of me because of what I said, and that they would never let me smoke pot again.

That is a good question now i'm curious. I know when I am awake and I close my eyes to imagine stuff, what I see isn't as defined as what I see with my eyes. However when I am sleeping my dreams seem as real as what I see with my eyes.

Now I wonder. I don't know anyone blind so I can't ask, but that is a good question. I'm SO curious now.

You pretty much lost me with that first paragraph, but yeah - interesting thoughts.

I think technically darkness is not seeing. Essentially seeing is the reception of reflected light onto the rods and cones in the retina. So darkness, being the absence of light would be not seeing anything... of course our eyelids are not impenetrable and there's usually at least a little light from somewhere.

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This is an outlet for my never-ending rantings.I am sure the people in my life get tired of all my crap so I thought I would force it into cyberspace.The meaning behind the name of this blog is simple.I get a kick out of my thoughts.Maybe the people that read it will not.Therefore, the wittiness of it just may be only in my mind.